Fortin M, Cabon E, Berbis J, et al. - Researchers assessed the utility of medical history and imaging features in diagnosing malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). For this purpose, they analyzed 92 patients with a final diagnosis of malignant pleural effusion (MPE) who were identified from their prospective medical thoracoscopy database. Imaging and medical charts of these patients were reviewed. They compared patients with primary MPE vs patients with secondary MPE with respect to clinical features and imaging features. They found that MPM patients significantly more frequently exhibited the following features: male gender, asbestos exposure, and mediastinal, diaphragmatic and circumferential pleural thickening. A significant association with a diagnosis of MPM was only shown by asbestos exposure and circumferential pleural thickening, as revealed in a multivariate linear regression model. Experts concluded the possible adequacy of circumferential pleural thickening in combination with a history of asbestos exposure for establishing a clinical diagnosis in settings where it is impossible to take sufficient pleural samples to distinguish MPM from a secondary pleural malignancy.